Al-Dura reporter can keep credentials

July 1, 2008 9:00am

Israel’s High Court rejected a request to revoke the press credentials of the French TV newsman at the center of the al-Dura affair.

The request, from the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, asked Israel’s Government Press Office to revoke all France 2 television workers’ press cards, including bureau chief and reporter Charles Enderlin, until the network issued a retraction and apologized for its coverage.

The three-judge panel said the quality of journalistic work is not a criterion for receiving press credentials, Ynet reported. The Government Press Office did not support the petition.

Enderlin’s report said al-Dura and his father were caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip.

Israel initially apologized for the incident, but later said an investigation showed its troops could not have struck the boy from their positions.

During a defamation suit brought by a media watchdog group in France, footage showed that seconds after al-Dura was seen lying motionless and apparently shot dead in the arms of his father, the boy lifted his arm and peered through his fingers at the camera.